The Best of Mickey Hart: Over the Edge and Back
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Description
The snarling grooves of doom on "Angola" symbolize Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart's intent for the last quarter century: to create a global percussion orchestra that merges electronics with rhythms from around the world. Hart could have opted for a seamless conceptual album, moving from the impressionism of "Temple Caves" from Planet Drum and "Compound" from the Apocalypse Now sessions to the power-trance grooves of "Angola" (Supralingua) and "Udu Chant" (also from Planet Drum). Instead, Over the Edge and Back is a sampler that even includes tracks from Hart's vocal album, Mystery Box, which ranged disjointedly from the R&B of "Where Love Goes (Sito)" to the Robert Hunter-penned "Down the Road"--both heard here and sounding lost. Skip those, however, and you'll hear Mickey Hart's rhythmic fantasies. The album goes all the way back to his 1976 album with the Diga Rhythm Band for "Sweet Sixteen," an ecstatic whirl of tuned percussion and hand drums that still sounds vibrant today. The album concludes with the previously unreleased "Call to All Nations" from the opening ceremonies of the 100th Olympiad in Atlanta in 1996. A surreal compression of global music that traverses the world, the track is Mickey Hart's vision of a 21st-century percussion orchestra summed up in about five minutes. --John Diliberto
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